• The Packaging Cluster embarks on a new project to offer knowledge, information and examples of good practices, to its 111 companies and associated entities
• The Next Generation Projects Office will be the reference platform for updated information on financing packages, aid programs, project ideas, consortium proposals or ongoing and executed initiatives.

To put it into context, we see how the European Commission has already announced that, in the next 3 years, the community of countries will receive an injection of funding never seen before, for the recovery of companies and industry after the pandemic caused by the coronavirus. Aid that will be conveyed through the European Next Generation EU funds, mobilizing close to 70,000 million euros for the industrial modernization and digitization of the Spanish business ecosystem, between now and 2023.

The bulk of the financing, almost 70%, will go towards the ecological transition (40%) and the digital transformation (28%), for a green and avant-garde Spain, two of the main axes on which the Cluster of the Packaging. On the occasion of the launch of this grant package by Europe and its unique characteristics, the cluster has decided to dedicate part of its resources to the creation of a new service that responds to the funds as well as to the needs of the packaging sector: the Next Generation Projects Office.

On July 20, the Packaging Cluster inaugurated its new Next Generation Project Office that will act as a driving node for new transformative projects for the competitive and resilient improvement of the packaging sector through the most relevant lines of aid from Next Generation funds.

With this office, as stated by Carlos Jiménez, Project Manager for sustainable innovation and circular economy, a new advisory service is started aimed at promoting ideas for business projects that can facilitate the arrival of European funds to member companies, with a public part where to inform about the new calls for subsidies and share ideas of collaborative projects with other sectors and entities; and a private part, in which the associated companies can access the Project Board, to: 1) know the projects that are being promoted, 2) search for key partners for collaborative consortia, 3) request information on project ideas and 4) participate in ongoing sectoral and intersectoral studies.

Àlex Brossa, Cluster Manager of the entity, explained during the session as part of the increase in funding in aid has already reached active calls today, such as the one directed to Agrupaciones Empresariales Innovadoras of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, that will go from 8 to 60 million euros in the final budget, in just 3 years. These non-refundable grants represent a boost for small and medium-sized companies that develop new initiatives in their industrial processes with all kinds of technology, such as robotics, software, sensors or 3D.

Two examples of success executed within the framework of the AEI grants that were presented were: Packvision, with the incorporation of automation systems to reduce factory defects and errors; and SmartLabels, for the creation of smart labels for the wine sector, with new printing technologies.

Another of the announcements made by Àlex Brossa during the opening day is the recovery by ACCIÓ of the NoN line for New Business Opportunities, with which the Agency is committed to the strategic change and growth of the company, which will open its first implementation phase in September 2021.

After the session, a subsequent project ideation workshop was held with the aim of achieving competitive improvement and industrial modernization of the packaging sector, with the Miró virtual tool.

The new Packaging Cluster service, the Next Generation Projects Office, responds to one of the entity's strategic axes, which is the generation of R+D+i projects at a national and international level. Learn about this new platform at: https://www.packagingcluster.com/Projects-office-next-generation/

What is the Packaging Cluster?

The Packaging Cluster is a non-profit entity that brings together more than 100 key representatives of the Catalan packaging sector, generating synergies between all the actors that are part of the value chain and joint projects for the improvement of the industry and its positive transformation through collaboration.